What vows do you take to be a Buddhist?

If you decide that Tibetan Buddhism is the path for you, and you wish to formalise your commitment, you may choose to take part in a ceremony called ‘Taking Refuge.’ (I have previously written about this concept in my blog: https://davidmichie.com/what-is-a-buddhist-a-definition/)

The refuge ceremony is often short, and as well as taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, as ‘lay people’ – as opposed to monks or nuns – we also take at least one of five lay precepts. These are commitments to uphold certain ethical principles. They are to:

Abandon killing

Abandon stealing (i.e. taking what is not freely given)

Abandon sexual misconduct (i.e. sexual activity that harms others)

Abandon lying

Abandon intoxicants (alcohol, wacky baccy and the like)

Tibetan Buddhism takes a pragmatic, step-by-step approach to many things, including lay vows. We are required to take only one of these vows – to abandon killing – which hopefully isn’t too big an ask. If we are engaged in ongoing fraud, are conducting a clandestine affair, are compulsive liars who get rip-roaring drunk every weekend, then best to leave off the other four commitments for the time being! We can always come back to them later, perhaps once our understanding of the Dharma has begun to transform our behaviour.

Why have any commitments at all? Ethics, along with meditation and developing wisdom are three key elements of Buddhist practice. For millennia it has been understood that it’s challenging to cultivate meditative concentration if your life out in the world is harmful. How can you abide in a state of benevolent well-being while knowing that you are causing pain to others? It is when our outer and inner behaviours are coherent and mutually supporting that we can optimise our likelihood of developing single-pointed focus and insight.

At the Dharma centre I go to, most of my fellow students are willing to take the first four lay precepts. But for many of us, the fifth one presents more of a challenge. That said, we all know that alcohol in excess can seriously impair our judgement, causing us to say and do things we wouldn’t otherwise say and do. Some of us try to walk a middle path on this one, while saluting those who are willing to take the vow to go all the way.

There is a Buddhist morality tale I’d like to share on exactly this subject. It’s a story I was going to share in a novel I was writing, but it impeded the narrative flow, so I removed it. Knowing that you, my readers, are keen on stories, and given the theme of this blog, I thought you may enjoy it here.

Abandon intoxicants!

There was once a young monk, travelling alone through the Tibetan countryside on his way to consult with a great master. It was the custom in Tibet for villagers in rural Tibet to offer monks a meal and a place by the fire for the night – supporting those who were devoting their lives to the Dharma being a virtuous action.

Late one afternoon as the skies were beginning to darken, the monk approached a small settlement. An attractive young woman emerged from one of the tents. It soon emerged that all the menfolk were in the mountains gathering yaks, and were away for the night. But, with the most welcoming – and was it, suggestive? – smile, she invited him to stay the night.

The young monk knew himself and his own instincts, only too well. Having only very recently been ordained, taking the vow of celibacy required of monks was a major commitment still vividly present in his mind. Deciding he still had time to walk further, and find less ethically challenging hospitality, he politely declined.

‘Will you at least stop for something to eat before you go on your way?’ the young woman entreated him, with her beautiful, slate-blue eyes. Before even reaching the settlement, the monk had caught the delicious aroma of fresh stew and dumplings. But unless the meat used for the stew had arisen from the natural death of an animal – an unlikely occurrence, the monk recognized – if he was to eat it he would be part of the karma of killing – the first and greatest precept shared by monks and lay people alike.

After he declined the offer of a meal, the young woman stepped closer, pleading, ‘Well, at least pause briefly for a drink of chang?’ Chang is a beer brewed from millet, popular throughout Tibet, and an assumed part of many social occasions. The young monk had, of course, taken a precept to abandon intoxicants, just as he had vowed not to kill or to engage in sexual activity. But having already turned down the kind girl’s first two invitations, not wishing to cause offense, and feeling confident that a few mouthfuls of chang were hardly going to make him drunk, he accepted.

We all know what happened next. After taking a few sips, the monk felt the warm glow of relaxation spread throughout his body. Chattering to the vivacious young woman, the two of them discovered how much they had in common, and what great chemistry there was in each other’s presence. Taking a few more sips, the idea of getting up and venturing back into the gathering darkness became all the more unappealing. The monk agreed to a second drink of chang.

There was, of course, a third drink after which the monk agreed to be served stew and dumplings. And before the night was out, he had broken his vow of celibacy too!

Abandon intoxicants!

(Photo credit: Thanks for the image of the man silhouetted Augustin de Monstequiou on unsplash.com, and prayer flags on mountainside to Daniele Salutari on unsplash.com)

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About author

David Michie (David Michie)

Comments (12)

John Ross

Thank you David. I enjoyed your story, as I do all of your writings. You bring great joy. Now that I’m old, I find it easier to comply to the 5 precepts. As a young man, it would have been much more of a challenge. Please continue sharing your great gift with the world. I look forward to all new work.
Peace & Love! John and Ellis the Cat.

Eldoret

I enjoy your writing tremendously. Thank you. I do feel though, that anyone who thinks they are not killing to nourish themselves, are living an unreality. I don’t enjoy killing, but see it as very necessary to my survival, as I see the eating of plants also as killing. I’m an avid gardener, so it’s impossible for me not to see it as such. So for that reason, as well as the fact that I do wear leather shoes, sir on a leather couch etc. I simply can’t be a honoring all 5 these principles.

Thanks so much for your contribution, Eldoret. The traditional Buddhist view is that while animals possess consciousness, plants do not. Even so, it is nearly impossible to eat without indirectly killing even as a vegetarian – all the foodstuffs we eat, being grown on lands cleared of animals and insects, and often sprayed with insecticides. The concept of ‘abandoning’ killing acknowledges the challenges of what we’re attempting. A grey area indeed!

ISABEL ANSALDO

Dear David; I have been lately thinking and asking about the vows and taking refuge .
People would not give me much information so I was waiting to ask the Geshes.
Then as I open my email I find your articlle.
Thank you so much for sharing and bringing light to my path once again.

Myszka

Abandon killing should also means “abandon killing by proxy” yet I saw many Buddhist eating meat including HH Dalai Lama. Contrary to the meat eaters ( fueled by meat industry) humans are herbivores. Being a healthy vegan surrounded by other healthy vegans I feel the love and compassion towards all living creatures big and small.

Thank you so much for your contribution, Myszka. We also need to be objective about eating plants on which insecticides have been used, or grown on land where various animals were removed, barred, or killed for agriculture to occur. This is a bit of a grey area. Having said that, being a vegan is certainly a very noble objective, as well as the one that most closely follows the commitment to abandon killing – and it is great to know that so many people around the world are getting on board the movement away from meat eating. Warm wishes, David

Sue Campbell

David,
I enjoyed your article and the the story. This story would make an excellent preamble to a longer one exploring life’s temptations and our struggle to be “good”. Perhaps in Volume 2 of your Bedtime Buddha series?!

I am not Buddhist or any other formal belief system, though I find most religious traditions to have valuable lessons and “guidelines” for living a life that enhances your your well being personally—and your impact on others, your community, and world.

I could do the first four of these vows, and perhaps the fifth most of the time—except for consuming, and using animal products. I have practiced vegetarian diets for years at a time, but I find that I “just like a steak” now and again. I regret that the meat business is very insensitive to animal welfare including their happiness while on this earth. But I do eat meat, still. I suppose that would make me a bad Buddhist if I were one.

I would like to advocate for better treatment of meat animals. Probably, buying meat from local farmers that I know treat their animals with care, would help me square that circle.

For a number of years I lived on a farm where we raised our own meat, milk and veg—and I know for a fact that it can be done not only humanely but with a degree of love. Though one still has to acknowledge that at the end of the process the animal ends up dead. My children were young when we lived this way, and it sometimes was difficult for them (as well as us). But I always approached it with the philosophy of the Native American hunter who honors and thanks the animal for its gift of life to sustain us humans. A rationalization, perhaps, but one we could live with—and one that I felt was more honest than believing that meat comes in plastic cling wrap without all that messy life and death behind it.

Humans are amazingly adaptive creatures in EVERY way. And we all adapt and do things differently to get to the same goal, including our beliefs and efforts to be “good” people. Thanks for your stories about people striving through the Buddhist way they are always enlightening!

Thank you so much for your beautifully considered message, Sue. You raise some important points. And I am sincerely grateful for your wonderfully supportive comments about my writing. Thank YOU for all that you do to help elicit interest in my work with your wonderful book cover designs.
Warm wishes, David

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